MISSING LINKS

How two seemingly unrelated figures in the news are joined by a series of unexpected connections.

BERNIE ECCLESTONE

…has been vilified for saying he’d ‘take a bullet’ for Vladimir Putin. Famously short, at 5ft 3in, the ex-Formula One boss is as tall of four of the Moet & Chandon magnums Grand Prix winners receive. In May, he was arrested by Brazilian authorities for carrying a gun on to a plane, an offence also committed by…

HARRY CONNICK JR

…in 1992. The crooner was found with an unlicensed, unloaded 9mm pistol at New York’s JFK airport. His arrest was not a good look for the son of a district attorney, a background he shares with…

GEORGE PATTON

…the Second World War American army hero who believed in reincarnation, thinking he was previously a Roman legionnaire. British General Harold Alexander once told him: ‘You’d have made a great marshal for Napoleon if you’d lived in the 19th Century.’ Patton replied: ‘But I did.’ Other famous names who believe they are reincarnated include…

SYLVESTER STALLONE

…who is convinced he was guillotined during the French Revolution, saying: ‘It doesn’t hurt. You don’t feel anything except your head hit the basket.’ He once told an interviewer he had ‘been something very Central American – a Guatemalan monkey, perhaps.’ His odd beliefs haven’t limited his dating life, with reported romances with ‘the first supermodel’ Janice Dickinson, ItGirl Tamara Beckwith, and…

NAOMI CAMPBELL

…the first black woman to grace the cover of French Vogue. She has also dabbled in novel writing (or at least putting her name to a ghostwritten title), music (though her critically slated 1994 album Baby Woman only sold about 200 copies in the week of release) and acting, starring in a Madonna video. She shares that achievement with…

ALI G

…who went to Matthew Arnold School in Staines, Surrey, according to the backstory Sacha Baron Cohen gave his character. It’s the same school where…

DAME DEBORAH JAMES

…was a teacher before she became such an inspirational campaigner for bowel cancer, and whose charity has topped £7million following her death last week, aged 40.